Rantorcha's AAEFX Training Journal - Road to...

Well, where do I begin?!?! It has been about a week and a half since my show was complete and I still have a bunch of things running through my head. Here’s my version of the day’s events…

First, I have to say what a great day it was backstage. I was able to hang out with both Eric and Kyle (Hoss), who I consider two of my best friends. Two nicer people on the planet you’d be hard-pressed to meet. And Kyle lives about 1500 miles away, so that should tell you something about him. What made this even more fun was hanging out with Troy and Krissy as well as Paul and it made for some nice camaraderie backstage.

I know no one mentioned above would find this disrespectful, but what made this a truly great experience was that I had a bunch of family and friends at both the pre-judging and night shows. Most importantly, my girls were there and my uncle bought poster board and pom-poms for them to cheer with when I was on stage. Honestly, after everything, that is what I am going to remember most of all!

RESULTS:
Well, here is where things didn’t quite turn out the way I would have wanted it. My goal was obviously to win my class and fight for the Pro Card. Well, in my eyes there was only one person who would give me any trouble. After pre-judging, I got a lot of positive feedback and just couldn’t wait until the night show. The posing routine came and went and it was time for the results. Unfortunately, I was called for 2nd place. While it was truly a bummer because I really did put all of my eggs into this basket, I accepted it. So, I went after the show for some feedback. One judge mentioned something about my legs and I just had to walk away. Legs are probably my best body part and they were pretty shredded for me being natural and for how big they are. So, I moved on to the one judge that I actually knew and respected from previous shows – the head-judge. After speaking to him I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or even more pissed! He told me that the guy who won had me beat in some body parts and others, I beat him. He also mentioned that my physique was more pleasing and that I had more body parts than he did overall. He said he had my in first on his sheet and that the judging scores were really close. So, of course I asked him…how close – he said, you lost by one point!

Oh well. I honestly felt like not competing any more at that point. I was pretty down, but didn’t want any of my family and friends to know it. I am so grateful for everyone’s support – here on the board and at home.

DINNER:
This was probably the most fun of the evening. I went to dinner with my sister, my uncle, Eric and his family, Kyle and his family and Dave (d1swanny). And boy did we eat. Ooof! It was really cool to meet Dave (finally!) and it is always a good time with everyone’s family. Mine didn’t come out because they had to take my girls to bed – it was pretty late.

AFTERMATH:
After my divorce mediation on Monday, and my vacation (from Tuesday until Sat night), I’ve obviously been away from the boards and it has given me some time to think. I feel a bit rejuvenated, although to be really honest, I am still a tad bummed. I will, however, use this as motivation. I am truly ready to provide the judges with no doubt where my placing should be next time. I am going to take a little break between shows because this year was pretty rough – between getting divorced and doing two shows within 5 months, it’s been taxing. But, make no mistake, I am ready for the challenges ahead. It may take a year, but rest assured, I’ll be back!!

Week #2 of training post-contest has started. I must admit the last couple of weeks I haven't been on much of a diet at all and it shows. I am currently getting myself back into the groove. My diet will now be spot on, except for a little (very little) break over the weekend to "live a little". My training starting today will be ferocious and I will hold nothing back. Every single workout will be specifically designed to work on bodyparts that I feel I need looking forward to my next show. I am truly ready to make my vision, my reality.

So, last week's training was nothing more than getting the blood flowing and getting used to having iron in my hands again...still sticking with my cardio sessions. Today was the start of the serious portion of training. Here's how it went...

LOW BACK
Partial Deadlifts - 3 sets
(it was nice to get the feel of deads back again. I wasn't using nearly the weight I am used to, but its not about the weight anymore! It's about building my physique to greater proportions!

Chest and delts are a focal point for me, so this day is of particular importance. It’s a strange transformation for me when I change out of my work clothes and into my gym clothes. I really feel like I turn into a different person.

Recently, I’ve noticed that for these two body parts, I need to lower the weight and really focus on the muscle I am intending to do the work. For example, with chest I feel like I have been using everything (except my chest muscles) to get up the weight. Going forward, that has changed. However, I do seem to need to remind myself at times…and sometimes within a set.

Already sore from yesterday’s back thrashing, I could probably stand to get in a nap right about now! Can’t wait to see how I wake up tomorrow after today’s workout…

Alright, boys and girls, I trust Thanksgiving was good in your household. Mine was fantastic! I had my girls the whole time and had my family come over for dinner at my place. We were in somewhat close quarters, but it didn't matter. We were together and we enjoyed our time together, which is what is most important.

I was able to get in all of my training last week, but was done by Wednesday. I basically took the rest of the week off to be not-a-bodybuilder. And although I still have some serious guilt about the food that I ate, it was somewhat nice for that period of time not to have to go nuts with my food.

It's time like these that make me realize that I am a bodybuilder through and through. I am not sure if it's partly an obsessive-compulsive issue, but I realized that bodybuilding is part of my being. I am really looking forward to training over the course of the next year to see what kind of gains I can make with a good year of solid, focused training.

My biggest issue will be my diet. I have no problems with training and even get in my 4-5 cardio sessions each week. After my first contest in June, I didn't really go too far with the ugly foods, but after this show I feel like I am going a tad overboard. I may need to ask Coach Eric what to do about that. I am making sure NOT to gain too much fat this off-season...even if it means I go on a mini-diet in a few weeks. Until then, I am done with crappy foods except for 2x per week...probably on Fri and Sat night.

That's the plan for now. I'll catch up with everybody tomorrow to talk more about my training.

Today was on off day, so no training. Hell, I didn't even do cardio this morning. I slept in instead and I think I needed it. I think I overdid it at the gym the last couple days that I gave myself a headache! lol I will say that I am sore as hell the last couple of days in my back, chest and delts. I must be doing a good job! I, instead, concentrated on my diet...not the most fun in the world, but a necessary evil.

I gotta tell ya… I am seriously kicking my own ass the last couple of weeks at the gym. I have been relentless on myself. I can really feel it now that I’m at the end of the week. My body is really sore…and very tired. I look so forward to the weekends when I feel like this.

I have also been giving my body rest from all of my EFX supps (although I am still using V&M Vitamins, ZMA, & LBA’s. I probably have about a couple more weeks like this before I start putting some back in slowly but surely. Eric recommended this, and I agree – the body just needs the rest. Plus I really believe it “primes” the body for when you start up again. I have to say, though, that my body really feels the effects of NOT using my EFX supplements. That just goes to show ya…you can throw up a bunch of cool studies that show how great a product (or product line) is. But if it doesn’t work in the real world, it just don’t matta! Lucky for me, EFX supps do BOTH!

I’ve stayed on my diet all week and now I am looking forward to tonight where I get to “live a little” by eating some pizza with my girls. YIPPEE!!!! Goodbye abs…I’ll see ya in a couple of days. lol

Another weekend passed with mixed results. I kept to my diet for the most part, but when I went off of it, I really went off of it. Nothing a little mini-diet or extra cardio can’t fix, right. Please…right?!?!? Lol Anyway, I had the girls this weekend and we put up our tree, read some books, watched movies, went to the stores to do some Christmas shopping. I even had time to watch football!!! We had a great time.

On to today…
Woke up this morning and felt like I could have used more sleep. But, I got up and hit the treadmill for 20+ minutes.

My quest for a thicker, wider back continued today in the form of a hellacious training session. Holy crap, was I spent after this one…sweating like a dog…bent over from exhaustion after each rep from the middle until the end.

Yesterday was my off day, but because my diet wasn’t exactly spot-on the last couple weeks, I decided to wake up and do cardio. Instead of 20 minutes, I did 25 minutes on my home-treadmill. I went through the rest of the day being good on my diet…although it was mentally tough. I don’t know why it has been so hard to keep on my diet lately, when it is relatively easy during contest prep.

Today, I woke up and did cardio again…this time for the regular 20 minutes. And, a little while ago, I came back from my training session. While I wasn’t quite at my best to start energy-wise, I pushed through and actually had a pretty decent workout!

Since I only train quads once every two weeks, I really make sure to thrash them as hard as I can while still maintaining the focus on what I want to do. I am pretty much done building mass at this point, so it’s all about refining the muscle and making sure I do targeted glute work.

It’s been a couple of days since I posted, so let me give everyone a quick run down of what’s been going on.

Friday, I started the day off with cardio – 22 minutes (I did an extra 2 minutes to get to 250 calories, knowing full well the cal count doesn’t mean anything.) I did Triceps, Biceps & Calves in the afternoon. My left elbow is really bothering me lately, but I am working through it. At this point, it looks like any tricep extension exercise is pretty much out, so I am constantly inventing ways to increase my tricep size…as this is a bodypart I NEED to improve.

I did cardio on both Saturday and Sunday - on Sat in the morning and in the afternoon on Sunday. I NEED to try to keep my bf down.

Monday was the start of a new training week. After getting in my cardio in the morning, it was time to focus on training in the afternoon. I decided to make this a HYBRID week of Power, Rep Range, Shock.

Mini-DELTS
Side Laterals – strict from the side
20/15, 25/16, 30/11
30/9+1…drop..22.5/6
Life Fit-Machine Press
115/11, 115/9 (my delts were screaming after the side laterals)

CALVES
Seated – 90/25, 115/18
Leg Press – 450/15, 450/15

Today, I started with cardio as usual. Again, I used Hybrid style for Chest.

CHEST
DB Incl Press-Angled hands (1x13-15, 10-12, 7-9) – 3 sets of 14, 11, & 9 reps. I did these slow to really feel the muscle working
Smith Incl Press (2x4-6) – after the rep range sets, it was tough to do power…which was this point. I did sets of 6, 7, and I increased the weight on the last set to get 4-1/2 reps.
Pullovers ss/ Incl Flye
80/15…45/9
90/12…45/8

Today is my off day and I decided early on that my body needed a true off day. I have been doing cardio in the morning for the last 10 days. So, it was time. I slept in a little bit (5:50am-haha), but had a weird night sleep.

Today is all about eating…making sure I stay on my diet. Actually, I am taking today as a very-reduced carb day. I only had 30g of carbs with my first meal and am only having healthy fats with each meal the rest of the day. I NEED to stay leaner this off-season.

What a strange day so far. The weather has been lousy, so the mood throughout the day has been rather somber. I woke up this morning determined to smoke today's workout, and I did, but it wasn't easy!

I got my pre-workout meal in and felt ok...off to the gym! Once I got there, something strange happened - I started to feel a tad light-headed for some reason. I'm not sure why, but it started off looking like it was NOT going to be a good day. But once I hit my first couple of sets - even though I was pretty dizzy afterwards - I was off to the races.

After a great workout on Friday, it was smooth sailing until today. I enjoyed my time over the weekend with the girls (and can’t wait until Christmas Eve)!!! I was even able to include some relaxing in there as well. Lucky for me, after today, I have off from work until January 4th! WOO HOO!!

But that doesn’t mean that I am stopping from working out. Matter of fact, I am moving around my schedule so I can get in a workout with Broser. I get jacked up when we train together. Too bad we don’t live closer to each other…no telling what kind of gains I could have if we trained together.

Anyway, it’ll probably be hit-n-miss with me being on the boards, since I’ve got my girls all of next week for their winter break. But here is today’s fun…

My last post here was on Monday, 12/21 and my last workout was with Eric Broser at his place on 12/23. I decided I was going to use that time to rest, relax and let loose a little bit. I was able to enjoy my girls Christmas Eve and into the morning, plus the whole last week of their vacation. MAN, did I have fun with them!! It was a perfect end to the old year and beginning to the New Year!

Now that it's the New Year, I was excited to get back at the gym. Same goals for the New Year apply! It's time to make 2010, the best year to date...

Woke up this morning and hit the treadmill. But that was after lying awake in my bed for over two hours. I woke up at 4am and could not go back to sleep. Not sure what happened, but I guess we'll see how it goes tonight.

Quick update on last week...
Majorly busy both at work and at home. Quarter-end and year-end at work brings about many reporting needs and with the new year, more and more projects are coming my way. I am really liking how things are going work-wise lately...so that's good. At home, I've reorganized some things, including my kids room to have things flow more easily. My closet got the once over as well. Plus I had my girls in the middle of the week, so getting on the computer was difficult to get to.

That said, my workouts were pretty crazy! I was sore as HELL all week long and after doing legs on Thursday, I could barely walk ALL WEEKEND!! UGH. Last week was my "normal" week where I hit each bodypart once. This week is my N.I. (Needs Improvement) week, where I hit bodyparts that need a little help once the normal way and once again in a mini-workout fashion.

It is Wednesday, so it is an off day for me I didn't do cardio either because I like to have my off days with no work what so ever. I call it "priming the pump" for when I have to hit cardio everyday for a contest.

I am staying consistent with my supps, though. I really feel that my supp regimine has been spot on. With the drug-free status and absolute purity of the products AAEFX makes, it has helped me get past some serious stagnations in my muscle-building quest. And at age 36, I can use every advantage I can get.

I'll give you a quick rundown of my protocol tomorrow...I'm spending the evening with my girlies!

Its unreal these days…it seems the more time I need, the less I have. I meant to get on the computer yesterday to give my update, but I had NO time and ended up having to go bed later than I wanted. Needless to say, waking up was not much fun this morning. But, I rolled out of bed and did my 20 minutes of cardio nonetheless.

I mentioned I would update everyone on my latest supplement regimen for this off-season. I am giving a TON of credit to my All American EFX supps for getting me past a very serious plateau last year and it is proving its worth, as I continue to improve at a much faster rate than ever! I really feel that the extreme high-quality and purity of these products make then second-to-none. So, here’s where I am at right now…